Syracuse 79, Boston College 71: Orange men’s basketball uses late run to defeat BC

Syracuse moves to 8-8 on the season and 2-3 in league play

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Syracuse’s best defensive possession of the game came down 54-48 with eight minutes to play.

Multiple defenders walled off their man, and at the end of the shot clock, Chas Kelley had nowhere to go. He attempted to step through toward the right baseline, but made one too many steps, and gave the Orange the ball back after a media timeout.

Coming out of that media timeout, Syracuse had isolated Eddie Lampkin on the left block with Chad Venning, and let the big man go to work. Lampkin got into the lane, and put in a hook shot to cut the lead to four.

Syracuse’s run continued, getting a few more stops, and JJ Starling gave the Orange the lead after a huge offensive rebound allowed him to reset the play and drive back down the right side.

After a dormant first 12 minutes of the second half, Syracuse came alive, roaring back to snatch a 79-71 win over Boston College on the road. Starling had a huge second half, scoring 20 of his 26 points, and Kyle Cuffe made two huge threes late as part of 10 second-half points to lift the Orange over the top.

Syracuse – with Donnie Freeman unavailable for the second straight game – stuck with the same starting lineup from Tuesday’s victory over Georgia Tech, and that group started off strong. JJ Starling opened the game with a jumper on the first trip down the floor, and the Orange fed Jyare Davis in the post for a bucket on the next possession.

Lucas Taylor twice got into the lane and converted, bringing Syracuse’s lead to 12-6, but Boston College scored seven in a row in a long whistle-free stretch. Hand capped the run with a three to give the Eagles their first lead, and mercifully, the media timeout came quickly after.

With a mostly reserve lineup on the floor, Syracuse scored nine points in a row on three consecutive threes. Taylor drilled the first two, and then drew a help defender and passed out to Jaquan Carlos at the top of the key for three.

BC fought back to cut the lead to one, but then Lampkin started to get going, scoring four of the Orange’s next six down low. After drawing a foul down low late in, Eddie Lampkin continued to jaw with Boston College big man Chad Venning to the point where the SU center picked up a technical foul.

Before being T’d up, Lampkin was about to head to the foul line with a chance to extend Syracuse’s lead to nine. By the time he attempted the first free throw, Donald Hand had made both technical free throws, cutting the lead to five.

To make matters worse, Lampkin missed both of his free throws, opening the door for Boston College to get back into the game.

However, the technical flipped the half, as the Orange had to take Lampkin off the floor when he picked up a quick second foul right after. Red Autry went to a 2-3 zone for the final three minutes of the first half, and Boston College scored on three consecutive possessions. First, a triple from Dion Brown, followed by an Elijah Strong floater from the high-post, and then Hand was fouled by Kyle Cuffe driving to the basket.

Despite managing the clock well by giving two fouls and leaving just 2.7 seconds on the clock for BC at the end of the half, Josh Beadle had just enough time to get off the game-tying three to send the game to the break, even at 32.

Coming out of the break, Boston College went right to Venning. He caught a pass in the paint and finished at the rim for an and-1 just 12 seconds into the second half, and it set the tone for the next few minutes.

The St. Bonaventure transfer scored the Eagles’ first seven points of the second half, and when Beadle got out in transition to bring BC’s lead to five right before the 16-minute mark, Autry used a timeout.

However, Syracuse struggled to generate offense for anybody besides Starling. Until Cuffe hit a layup with under nine minutes to play, only Davis and Starling had scored in the second half, and BC opened up an eight-point lead.

After Starling kept them afloat, the Orange burst through, with that 10-0 run to take a 56-54 lead with under six minutes left.

Josh Beadle responded with a jumper, but Cuffe drained a three from the left wing to give the Orange the lead for good. On a baseline out of bounds after the under-four, Cuffe found his way to the corner, completely unguarded, and extended the lead to four.

Starling once again proved critical in the closing stages, with a few key buckets to keep Boston College at bay. The Orange crowd showed up, as it always does for games at BC, and helped pull Syracuse through as they gritted out a tough road win.

Lampkin did a good job avoiding his fourth foul after picking up his third in the middle of the second half, and finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Taylor had another double figure scoring performance, with 15 points, and Davis added 12 as well.

Boston College got 17 points from Venning and Beadle, along with 20 from Hand, but SU held everybody else in check.

The Orange return to the Dome to face Louisville – coming off a big win at Pittsburgh – on Tuesday night.